“YA’LL” YACKS BACK: Heroes Haggle, Stephenie Stymied

“It’s Getting the Best of Me” Boston Rob overworks himself into an epiphany and takes full charge of the Villains, but the real show is at Heroes camp when James blows up at Stephenie for not following JT’s orders during the combined Reward/Immunity Challenge, putting Tom and Colby in jeopardy.

Stephenie LaGrossa (of Palau and Guatemala) was the season’s second casualty, after engaging in a heated exchange with James that also manged to ensnare Colby and Tom, who rushed to her defense after James berated her for approximately the 1,267th time. Was Stephenie guilty of not following directions at the challenge? Yes. Did James go overboard with his ceaseless bitching and moaning about her? Absolutely. The pissed-off piéce de résistance occurred when Steph, after having her torch snuffed, turned to James and said, “Some advice. Next time y’all lose a challenge, a little less cursing off your tribe might help.” To which James eloquently replied, “Keep your mouth shut.”

Early on, there was a medical scare courtesy of Boston Rob, who fell unconscious at camp. He had to be treated by medics while host Jeff Probst looked on. He was ultimately determined to be OK, and maybe just had the flu, or “maybe a little bit of crybabyitis,” Rob told us.

That’s when he realized he needed to stop being the good guy and start being a villain, but that didn&apos;t really happen: He ended up being the hero to his tribe during the challenge. From giving directions to hoisting a massive wooden crate up all by himself, he was both the emotional center of the tribe and its de facto leader.

Of course, that annoyed Russell, the self-appointed leader of the Villains tribe, at least in his head, where he probably imagined he&apos;ll metaphorically do to Rob what he literally did to a chicken (chased it and ended its life). But for now, the Villains are the two-time victors and have the momentum despite being the dysfunctional group at camp. And it is a dysfunctional camp, with a ragged shelter and a lot of arguments.

The sparks done flew tonight, and they weren&apos;t coming from the campfire. Probst, did you really have to go there with James? Amid another “one voice” diatribe and blaming Stephenie for violating his STFU challenge policy, James created additional confusion with the identity of “y’all”—but I guess it&apos;s not Stephenie. “Darling,” James told Miss Kryptonite, “your name is not y’all. I’ll be damned if anybody named y’all in here.”

But we never came close on that puzzle. The Villains were like one away and we had one right. The whole time he’s yelling, “Shut up, shut the f up!” which I understand – we’re in the heat of the battle. After the competition, he said, “If y’all would just shut up, we would’ve won.” He was looking right at me, I said to him, “Me? First of all, it wasn’t just me talking. We weren’t even close. It’s over, calm down.”

As he pointed out, I have experience in losing, though I don’t think it’s this omen I give off. Move forward. We can talk about it like adults or flip out like a big lunatic. It just escalated from there. Colby got in his face on the beach – they almost got in a fist fight. Tom got in his face. They didn’t show the half of it.

I don’t think he was a *complete* jackass. He had a point. He just took it too far.

Stephenie is very passive aggressive. She is good at looking innocent while causing problems. She countered the tribe’s chosen leader several times and it was clear she had no idea what she was talking about. The tribe agreed on “one voice” and she didn’t obey that. Bad on her.